Also for the cult of the Egyptian divinities in Ostia the great excavations conducted by Calza in the immediate pre-war period have led to important results, confirming what the epigraphic and literary evidence had made us assume:[1] in fact the excavation of the blocks south of the so-called Via della Foce, at the extreme western limit of the area that has been brought to light up to now, has revealed a Serapeum (Reg. III, Insula XVII, 4), evidently the sanctuary that the Fasti Ostienses mentioned as dedicated by a .... Caltilius P [....] in 127 AD on January 24th, Hadrian's birthday.[2] The sanctuary is part of a complex of houses, warehouses, and baths that occupy a trapezoidal area (left free between previous buildings,[3] all of which are approximately of the Hadrianic age), erected almost at the same time in a period ranging from 123 to 127. Therefore, as Becatti already noted, they fall within the Trajanic-Hadrianic plan for the arrangement of this region. The trapezoidal area, which has its main base on Via della Foce, is crossed by an internal blind street (the so-called Via del Serapeo) on which are aligned to the east the Terme della Trinacria (Reg. III, Ins. XVI, 7) with the Caseggiato a Taberne (Ins. XVI, 6), which has its arcaded front on Via della Foce, and to the west the Caseggiato (Ins. XVII, 2) with the Mitreo della Planta Pedis, Ins. XVII, 3, the Serapeum and the Caseggiato di Bacco e Arianna (Ins. XVII, 5). As is clear not only from the contemporaneity of the construction, but also from the original plan of the buildings, the buildings to the north and south of it were part of the Sanctuary (Ins. XVII, 2-3, XVII, 5); they are in direct communication with the porticoed square on which the actual temple was erected; buildings which, with their large triclinium halls and their various rooms and courtyards, were probably destined for ceremonies of worship and the residence of its ministers.
I would not exclude that the Terme della Trinacria and the nearby Caseggiato (Ins. XVI, 6) with a portico on Via della Foce were also related to the Sanctuary: in fact, a slab with pumice inlay representing a bull, evidently Apis, adorned one of the pillars of the portico.[4] However, the decoration may also have been inspired by the immediate proximity of the Serapeum, without the building having a direct relationship with it.
The actual Serapeum presents itself with the characteristic appearance in Ostia of the collegiate temples that were built in a porticoed area: here the area is accessed from Via del Serapeo, through a portal, the threshold of which is adorned with a mosaic with the bull Apis. Likewise the courtyard in front of the temple is paved in mosaic with Nilotic scenes, of which few fragments are preserved, while the two porticoes that run along the two main sides have a marble inlay floor, of a later date or restored in a late period, given that the marble slab of a tympanum inscribed Iovi Serapi was reused;[5] the slab was probably placed on the entrance portal to the sanctuary rather than in the temple itself. From the arcades one had access to the neighbouring buildings, which, as we have mentioned, were originally part of the Sanctuary. At the far end of the court was the small brick temple, on a high podium that was accessed by a staircase that has been restored several times, with a pronaos adorned with two granite columns and a mosaic floor in which polychrome marble tiles were inserted. The cella, wider than it is long, has a high bench at the back that was already enlarged during construction, and was perhaps covered with precious inlays, since, during the excavation, thin strips of mother-of-pearl were found here, agate and other semiprecious stones. Unfortunately today the temple appears to us in its skeleton, devoid of those marble coatings, stuccos and paintings that must have constituted the decoration, but the remains of mosaics both in the area in front and in the rooms of the neighbouring buildings, which depended on it, demonstrate its richness at the time of the construction. Probably only towards the end of the third or the beginning of the fourth century the Serapeum, perhaps because the cult was less flourishing, was restricted to the arcaded area around the temple, since in this period the Ins. XVII, 3 was transformed into one of those noble domus of the late empire that constitute one of the most salient features of the Ostian building activity,[6] also because the Caseggiato di Bacco e Arianna was separated from it.
Before examining the epigraphic testimonies, which refer to the cult of Serapis both in Ostia itself and in the port, we must remember the mithraeum that, installed in the area of the Serapeum, demonstrates with its characteristics the link that, also in Ostia, existed between the two cults in an older age than Cumont thought.[7] This link has already been brilliantly demonstrated by Becatti, whose conclusions I will present by making them my own.[8]
The mithraeum of the Planta Pedis was installed in a building (Reg. III, Ins. XVII, 2) south of the Serapeum, located between the building originally connected with the temple, later transformed into a late domus, and the trapezoidal Horrea (Reg. III, Ins. XVII, 1) that close off the Via del Serapeo to the south. The mithraeum had a niche at the back, between the posts of which was the altar of Mithras with three levels, at the sides of which were the bases of the statuettes of Cautes and Cautopates, while in front of it there must have been the sacrificial altar.
Along the sides of the room ran the lateral benches, although it seems that only on one side there was the characteristic kline, while on the other there is only a bench. The white mosaic floor with black squares had the figure of a snake and, right at the entrance, an imprint of a pointed right foot wearing a shoe (from which the mithraeum derives its name). In the original mortar floor of the mithraeum, found under the mosaic, an identical imprint carved into a brick fragment was found, at the same spot as the mosaic planta pedis.
As Margherita Guarducci has shown,[9] the footprints and votive feet so frequent in the ancient world have various meanings, including that of evoking the god and the desire to follow in his footsteps, a concept that is also at the basis of the votive feet surmounted by the bust of Serapis and enveloped by a snake, and as is also shown by the inscription of a faithful named Aetos on a votive foot found in Syria: “holding the foot, keeping the foot on the foot, I dedicated to Serapis”.[10] Finding the footprint on the threshold of the Mithraeum near the Serapeum would demonstrate the bond of the two cults or at least the influence that one had on the other, an influence all the more explainable if one thinks of the assimilation of Serapis with Helios, and of the close connection of Mithras with the solar divinity. Moreover, the Ostian example of links between the two cults would not be unique: Becatti recalls the dedication to Zeus Serapis Helios found in the Mithraeum of the Baths of Caracalla; the discovery in Virunum of a dedication to Mithras together with a statue of Serapis; a dedication and statue of Serapis found in the Mithraeum of Merida; and the discovery in Soli in Cyprus of a Mithraeum adjacent to the Serapeum.
The installation of the Mithraeum next to the Serapeum would be slightly later than the Hadrianic age, since a dedication to Sol Invictus Mithras by sacerdos Florius Hermadio, pro salute Augustorum, which Becatti thinks are Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, was found on the altar.[11] In addition to the cult of Mithras, the cult of Serapis in Ostia has some links with the cults of Hercules and the Dioscures, as evidenced by two bases, still unpublished, found in the area, with dedications to these divinities in honour of Jupiter Optimus Maximus Serapis. On the other hand, remembering the importance of the cult of Hercules,[12] and of the Dioscures,[13] in Ostia we cannot be surprised that these divinities were also honoured by the devotees of Serapis in the context of his sanctuary; it was a way of binding in one faith the old and new gods.
We have little information about the priestly hierarchies: a neocorus is mentioned in a fragment of an inscription (CIL, XIV, 4325), as well as in a Greek inscription (IG, XIV, 920) found in Ostia, but which Taylor had related to the Serapeum of Portus although, as Meiggs also notes, the current discovery of a Serapeum also in Ostia does not make it necessary to attribute these inscriptions to the sanctuary in Portus, the existence of which is documented by a series of Greek inscriptions.[14] Although the inscriptions concerning the Serapeum of Portus are mainly in Greek, while those of the Serapeum of Ostia are mainly in Latin, in Ostia itself Greek inscriptions with a dedication to Serapis have been found, evidently because they were placed by dedicators of Greek origin or by the influence of the Alexandrian cult practiced mainly in Portus. Such is the case of the inscription of a Π. Ακυλλυος Θεοδοτος [P. Akulluos Theodotos] found along the decumanus (CIL, XIV, p. 613, at no. 47). It would be particularly interesting to be able to ascertain the certain provenance from Portus of the inscription, now in the Capitoline Museum, with a dedication Διι Ηλιωι μεγαλωι Σαραπιδι και τοις συνναοις θεοις [To Jupiter Sol great Sarapis and to the gods who share the same temple] by the νεωκορος Λ. Κασσιος Ευτυχης [neokoros L. Kassios Eutyches] (IG, XIV, 915 = CIL, XIV, 47 = Thylander, B 304); in fact it seems to me that the provenance from Portus was supposed by analogy with the other Greek inscriptions found there and because the presence of a Serapeum in Ostia was not suspected. If, on the other hand, a discovery in Ostia could be postulated, we should not only relate to this Serapeum the numerous objects offered by the generous donor (three altars, a silver lamp, a lamp with several wick holes, a censer, some bases), but think, given the phrase συνναοις θεοις, that the Serapeum of Ostia was also dedicated to the cult of Isis, which appears several times in the Ostian epigraphy. But before dealing with this question, let us look at other documents of the cult of Serapis. Besides the temple, which we have described extensively and to which the inscriptions that we mentioned can be related, other chapels of Serapis must have existed in the city, given the widespread diffusion of the cult. The episode of the Octavius by Minucius Felix, which gives rise to a dispute over Christianity,[15] clearly shows this, for example, by the chapel with the painted stucco figure of the seated Serapis, discovered in the courtyard of the Caseggiato del Serapide (Reg. III, Ins. X, 3), which stands not far from the Serapeum,[16] or the statue of Serapis enthroned, now in the Museum of Ostia, found near the temple that stands in the centre of the Piazzale delle Corporazioni.[17]
Apart from these major works, Ostia has given us a considerable series of small busts and statuettes of marble that probably adorned private homes or were objects of worship in the Iararia.[18] Among these I will point out in particular, because of the fine execution, a delightful statuette of the god seated on a throne with next to him the three-headed dog, which is evidently inspired by the famous one of Bryaxis,[19] found in Via della Foce together with the small porphyry bust, perhaps mounted on a foot, which has been mentioned; a torso of an Egyptian statue of a stelophoros covered with hieroglyphs;[20] two statuettes of Isis;[21] a small bronze bust of the god emerging from an acanthus chalice and intended to be inserted on a base (Inv. 3551). The discovery of this ensemble of sculptures near the Serapeum and a chapel of Serapis could suggest that they came from the temple, or document a particular worship in the area. The Egyptian fragment of a stelophoros certainly came from the temple, especially since the fragment of the legs of an Egyptian statue in black basalt was found in Via del Serapeo, in front of the entrance to the sanctuary. Evidently, also in the Ostian Serapeum, Egyptian-style sculptures were collected, which contributed to "create the atmosphere". Two other small bronze busts of the god are part of the Ostian collections; particularly interesting for the place of discovery is one of them, which is part of the ensemble of bronzes found in the Edificio delle Pistrine,[22] which is supposed to have adorned the adjacent Sacello di Silvano. The presence in this chapel of a statuette of Serapis would prove the attempt to reconcile old and new cults, mentioned already, and the link of the Egyptian god with the Latin one, already emerging from the dedication by C. Pomponius Turpilianus (CIL, XIV, 20) pro salute et reditu of Antoninus and Faustina, to Isis, Serapis, Silvanus and the Lares. The second bust comes from the so-called Piccolo Mercato and could be part of either a private Iararium or a public place of worship.[23] The spread of the cult of Serapis is also documented by the popularity enjoyed by his image for bezels of rings: on an oval carnelian the enthroned Serapis is engraved with Cerberus at his feet (Inv. 4368), on another (Inv. 4370) is the bust of the god.
And the god also appears on common objects of the humblest material and within everyone's reach: on the oil lamps, where sometimes he adorns the handle in the form of a bust (Inv. 3178-3179, 3190) and at other times he appears on the disc (Inv. 5419); or he is moulded into poor and rough clay figurines (Inv. 3227), or his bust is adapted as a lamp support, or perhaps as a modest censer, as one might think of the small clay bust (Inv. 3226) that has on its head, in place of the usually modius, a kind of cup.
From the overall picture of the finds, from the variety of materials and objects found, from the fact that most of them, also those of more precious materials, such as marble and bronze, are works of modest craftsmanship and small in size, and therefore more accessible to all, we can easily infer how much the Egyptian god was honoured, also privately, by the population of Ostia and Portus.
We have mentioned the rich epigraphic documentation of the cult of Isis in Ostia and Portus,[24] which had led to postulate the existence both in Ostia and in Portus of an Iseum, even before that of a Serapeum was considered probable or certain. Unfortunately the excavation has not yet revealed the Sanctuary of the goddess, but the circumstances of the discovery in 1862-64 of many objects related to the cult of Isis "near the Tiber" would lead us to believe that the Sanctuary should be sought in that area.[25] Unfortunately the very vague notes do not allow for a greater clarification. Paschetto, collating various notes from the "Giornale di Roma", suggests the possibility of two points on the banks of the Tiber - either near the so-called Palazzo Imperiale, or near the Capitolium - favouring the latter; on the other hand, the discovery of the Serapeum in the area of Via della Foce could rather make us lean towards the location of the Iseum in an adjacent area and therefore rather towards the "Palazzo Imperiale". An inscription found near the bank of the Tiber, not far from the alleged navalia, mentioning tabernae in relation to Isis and Serapis,[26] which seems to have a topographical rather than sacred value, could support the supposition. On the other hand, the very incomplete state of the text does not allow any further clarification and it must be borne in mind that the place of discovery may not be that of the original location. However, there is no need to dwell on a topic to which only the continuation of the excavations can give a conclusive answer. We will limit ourselves to affirming that even if she was honoured together with Serapis in the known temple - as is also suggested by the discovery of statuettes of the goddess in its vicinity and the frequent dedications to the two united deities - Isis must have had her own independent sanctuary, as evidenced by the numerous inscriptions commemorating priests of the goddess: sacerdos Isidis ostiensis. We have already mentioned M. Valerius Fyrmus, who combined in himself the priesthood of Isis and of the Magna Mater (CIL, XIV, 429); to him can be added a M. Ulpius Faed (imus) (CIL, XIV, 437); two others of which the unfortunately mutilated epitaphs of the names are preserved (CIL, XIV, S. 4672; 4667); a D. Fabius Florus Veranius, priest of the "Holy Queen" (CIL, XIV, 352) - a name of Isis that we also find in another Ostian inscription (CIL, XIV, 4290), which commemorates the dedication of a statuette of Mars on horseback -, to whom a statue was erected by senator Flavius Moschylus, who was himself an isiacus. Other isiaci, that is initiates in the cult, are mentioned in Ostia in funeral inscriptions: Arruntia Dynamis (CIL, XIV, 302); Cornelius Victorinus (CIL XIV, 343); P. Cornelius Victorinus who dedicated the statue of Mars, and who is also Anubiacus.
To the dedication of the aforementioned statuette of Mars we must add that of a silver Venus and a golden crown to Isis Bubastis by the Bubastiaca Caltilia Diodora.[27] This last inscription proves the concomitance in Ostia, as elsewhere, of the cult of Isis and of Bubastis, who the Romans had identified with Artemis.[28] To the association of the cult of Isis with that of Anubis testifies the title anubiacus, which both his priest D. Fabius Florus Veranius and P. Cornelius Victorinus - already mentioned several times - have; moreover we will see how Anubis appears next to the goddess in some representations.
But the goddess is not only venerated together with other Egyptian divinities: as we have already seen for Serapis, she is also associated with Latin divinities as in the aforementioned dedication by Pomponius Turpilianus, in which Silvanus and the Lares accompany her, and several times with the Magna Mater.[29]
Alongside these documents referable to the Iseum of Ostia, there are others that, found in Portus, refer to the sanctuary of the goddess that stood near the two port basins, revealing a unique detail: the megaron, an underground sanctuary, in which the mysteries were celebrated,[30] which was enlarged by two faithful (CIL, XIV, 19 = Thylander, B 294) and restored by one of his priests .... Camurenius Verus and the other isiaci, for the health of an emperor (CIL, XIV, 18 = Thylander, B 293). The particular mention of the megaron, which is found only in Ostia associated with the cult of Isis, while it is often used in connection with the mysteries of Demeter, would add new evidence to the common identification of the Egyptian goddess with Demeter, an identification all the more significant in the port of Rome where the goddess could, like Serapis, be linked in particular to the Alexandrian fleet, which supplied Rome with grain, and therefore should have provided her double protection: both as a goddess of abundance and harvest, and as a goddess of navigation.
The links with Serapis and Cybele, also attested for the Ostian cult, would be attested by an inscription in which the Serapis worshipers who dedicate a schola also commemorate Isis and the Magna Mater Deum Idaea.[31]
Finally it is good to clarify that if the testimonies concerning the city of Ostia were kept separate from those of the two ports, it is not because the cults practiced in the two places must necessarily have different characteristics, or because they are different centres (for three centuries, in fact, Portus was only a district of Ostia), but to underline the importance of those divinities, who had sanctuaries both in the urban centre and in the port. It is indeed natural that when an inhabited centre developed around the port, temples were dedicated to the most revered deities there too. It cannot be excluded that particular circumstances determined some different "nuance" in the cults practiced in the two localities for the same divinity, but such and so many are the syncretisms, the combinations, the meanings of the same divinity in the ancient world, that phenomena of this kind are also found in the same place depending on the particular beliefs of a faithful.
In Ostia, the port of Rome, it is natural that Isis was particularly honoured as the protector of navigation and in her meaning of Isis-Fortuna, even if initially she could have been introduced, as in Rome, for the exotic and mysterious nature of her cult, and for the hope of rebirth that her mysteries gave.[32] Even if none of the epigraphic testimonies that have come down to us is prior to the second century. it is possible that there were, if not a sanctuary, at least some faithful even before this date. To this testifies the painting of a tomb in the necropolis along the Via Laurentina,[33] tomb n. 18, known as the tomb "of the priestess of Isis", datable to the beginning of the Augustan age. The painting of the external niche in which stands a woman with a sistrum in her hand, among an ensemble of small animals, flowers and pomegranates that fill the field, could also be later than the first phase of the tomb, but in any case not by much. The lack of other attributes besides the sistrum and the type of clothes made us think, more than of the goddess herself, of an initiate or a priestess represented among the delights of the Elysian fields, evidently obtained through the initiation in the cult of Isis. From the end of the first or the beginning of the second century dates the tomb of another faithful of Isis, of which the terracotta epistyle is preserved with the inscription adorned with reliefs on the sides allusive to the Egyptian cult: that Flavia Caecilia was devout, if not actually a priestess of the goddess, is proven by the two Apis bulls crouched on the sides of the epigraph, accompanied by the sistrum and the situla, attributes of Isis.[34]
As I mentioned, it is therefore possible that even before the second century there were faithful of Isis in Ostia, as there were in Rome; after all, if only after the construction of the port of Trajan the Alexandrian fleet called at Ostia, that does not mean that Egyptian sailors had not landed at the mouth of the Tiber before that period, not to mention that, like other cults, this one too could have reached Ostia through Rome. We have already mentioned that the cult in a port city should be eminently linked to the appearance of Isis as the protector of navigation, and we are all the more confirmed in the idea considering that the official holidays celebrated by the Roman state itself in honour of Isis on March 5,[35] known as navigium Isidis, solemnized the spring resumption of navigation and culminated in the launch of a ship dedicated to the goddess. It is very likely that the festival, like that of the Dioscures who were also protectors of navigation, took place in Ostia and that we must imagine through the streets of the city the evocative white parade of women scattering flowers, or holding mirrors, of musicians, of young singers, of initiates who rattle the sistra, of priests, who carry the symbols of the cult, similar to that vividly described by Apuleius (Met., xi, 8-17) at Kenchreai. In the procession, the first of the priests carried “a lamp that shone with bright light; but this did not look at all like our lamps that illuminate banquets in the evening, but it was in the shape of a boat and had a hole in the centre from which a fairly large flame came out", as Lucius narrates in the culminating episode of the Metamorphoses (xi, 10). Now in Ostia a beautiful clay lamp in the shape of a slender ship has been found, decorated on the deck with images of Isis, Serapis and Harpocrates, which has five beaks on each side unlike the one mentioned by Apuleius, but which is obviously inspired by those, perhaps of more precious material, carried by priests. It is probably a votive object or in any case connected to the cult of Isis.[36] Interesting is the presence on the lamp of Serapis and Harpocrates, who, normally connected to the cult of the goddess, as has already been said, were, as Apuleius says,[37] also present in the procession of March 5 together with Anubis,[38] and we saw in Ostia various Anubiaci among the faithful of Isis.
To the ceremony of the navigium Isidis a painting, now in the Vatican Library,[39] was also related; on it, in a procession of boys, two children pull a ship on a cart. The ship actually has no sign of the cult of Isis, nor do the children bear any particular emblems of the Egyptian cult, but it is not unlikely that the representation echoes the Ostian ceremony.
Another painting, found by Visconti in a tomb of the necropolis along the Via Laurentina,[40] also testifies to the link between Isis and the sea; we witness the loading of a ship with grain. The ship is called Isis Geminiana and the fact that, to distinguish it, the name derived from the name of the master, Geminius, has been added to the name of the goddess, indicates that many boats boasted the venerated name of the patroness of the sailors.[41]
Goddess who gave her faithful a hope of rebirth (and as such we see her also associated with Cybele), goddess of the underworld (and as such she is associated with Anubis and Serapis), goddess of abundance and nature, protector of navigation, under these different aspects Isis must have been honoured in her two sanctuaries of Ostia and Portus. Rich sanctuaries in which Egyptian-style ornaments and objects must have appeared alongside statues and sculptures of classical style, as in the Serapeum and in the sanctuaries of Egyptian divinities of the Roman world, which, as we said, increased the exotic character of the ceremonies and with their unusual shapes contributed to creating a mysterious atmosphere. Perhaps from the Iseum of Portus come the rich table support of red porphyry on which a bust of Isis is supported by a squat figure of the monstrous Bes,[42] and the capital of grey granite in Egyptian style.[43] To the Iseum of Ostia on the other hand we must assign the statue of a kneeling pastophoros carrying an aedicula with the image of Isis, found in 1860 together with sculptures and inscriptions related to the cult of Isis in the aforementioned place "near the bank of the Tiber",[44] and the pillar carved on two sides with a palm full of dates and lotus leaves.[45]
These Egyptianising sculptures can give us an idea of the decoration of temples, but much more indicative for the spread of the cult are the numerous statues and statuettes of the goddess, of marble,[46] of terracotta,[47] and the many oil lamps in the decoration of which she appears,[48] whether they are cult objects (the faithful carried oil lamps and torches in the processions) or simple objects of common use, which repeated in the decoration venerated subjects and which, for this very reason, were chosen by the buyers.
We will particularly remember the beautiful statue of the goddess, now preserved in the Museum of Ostia, the torso of which was found incorporated into a late wall of the palestra of the Terme del Foro, while the head, crowned with a diadem and ureus, was brilliantly recognized and restored by Raissa Calza:[49] the goddess is represented with the mantle wrapped around the body and tightened under the breasts by the characteristic knot, according to the type created by the Alexandrian art and widely diffused in the Hellenistic-Roman world.
Among the oil lamps, two deserve particular mention. One (Inv. 5535) is a large lamp with a depiction on the disc of Isis standing frontally with ureus and lotus flower on the head, and patera and sistrum in the hands; to the left of the goddess is Anubis with caduceus and palm and, to the right on a small base, Harpocrates with lotus flower on his head and cornucopiae with palm in his left hand; on the handle is a crescent moon surmounted by a bust of Jupiter-Serapis. The other (Inv. 2146) has as an ornament of the handle the embracing busts of Isis and Serapis, while the disc shows a bearded bust with a radiated crown in which we must recognize Serapis in his sense of Helios, which we have already mentioned. More than for its representations, which only underline once again the obvious link between the two Egyptian gods, the oil lamp is important as proof of the local diffusion of the cult since, bearing the stamp of Annius Serapidorus, it was certainly made in Ostia. And as proof of the spread of the Egyptian cults we recall a last monument, also last in chronological order: the tombstone of a boy who, by the peculiarities of his clothing and by the characteristic long tuft of hair behind the right ear, is characterized as an initiate in the cult of Isis.[50] The stylistic features date the piece to the fourth century, which is very interesting as a demonstration of the long survival of the Egyptian cult in Ostia. Started as early as the first century, when a tomb on the Via Laurentina could be adorned with the painting of a priestess of Isis, very flourishing in the second, when the Sarapea of Ostia and Portus were built and, probably, the two Isea, object of particular devotion at the beginning of the third, it still has followers in the fourth, when the tombstone of a boy represents him as an initiate in the cult of Isis.
While Isis and Serapis had separate sanctuaries, they were evidently honoured also as a divine couple and clues deduced, both from the representations on oil lamps and from sculptural monuments, lead us to think that Horus-Harpocrates, third character of the Egyptian triad, was added to them, albeit in a secondary position.[51] For Anubis, the jackal-headed god assimilated with Mercury, the couple's servant and messenger and companion of souls to the Underworld, the epigraphic and monumental testimonies are clear. However, it does not seem that in Ostia the cult had specifically local characteristics, given that both the spring ceremony of the launch of the ship, linked to Isis as protector of navigation, and the ties of Serapis with the cult of Mithras, do not reflect local contingencies, but are also documented elsewhere in the Roman world.[52]
NOTES
[1] For the Egyptian cults in Ostia cf. Ross Taylor, Cults, p. 66 ff., Paschetto, pp. 165-167, Meiggs, Ostia, pp. 366 ff., H. Schaal, Ostia, p. 145 f.
[2] Degrassi, Inscript. ltaliae, XIII, I, Fasti et Elogia, Roma 1947, pp. 205-234. For the dating: cf. Scavi di Ostia, I, Roma 1953, p. 138; H. Bloch, The Serapeum of Ostia and the Brick-Stamps of 123 A.D. A new Landmark in the history of Roman Architecture in AJA, LXIII, 1959, pp. 225-240; R. Meiggs, Ostia, p. 367 ff.
[3] To the west are still unexplored Horrea dated between 112 and 117, to the east the Ins. XI, I, 2, 4 from the beginning of the Hadrianic period.
[4] Cf. M. Floriani Squarciapino, Ostia. Lastra fittile con intarsio in pomice in NSc, 1956, pp. 59-61 (Inv. no 5439).
[5] FA, VIII, 3680; H. Bloch, op. cit., p. 226.
[6] G. Becatti, Case Ostiensi del tardo impero in BArte, 1948, pp. 102-128, 197-224. The domus next to the Serapeum is not considered here, because it had not yet been completely excavated.
[7] F. Cumont, Textes et Monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra, I, p. 332, note 4. In fact, Cumont insisted on the rivalry between the Mithraic cult and the Egyptian one, and thought that only at the end of the 4th century AD the priests of Mithras would also have been priests of Isis.
[8] Scavi di Ostia, vol. II: G. Becatti, I Mitrei, Roma 1954, pp. 77-85.
[9] M. Guarducci, Le impronte del “Quo Vadis” e monumenti affini figurati ed epigrafici in Rend. Pont. Acc. Arch., XIX, 1942-43. pp. 305-344. Precisely on Via della Foce, that is, in the vicinity of the Serapeum, a fragmented small bust of Serapis of red porphyry was found, with a twisted snake, which must have been inserted into a foot (Inv. 209).
[10] G. Becatti, Mitrei p. 81, and note 4 for prec. bibl.
[11] G. Becatti, Mitrei, p. 82. Another link between the oriental and Egyptian cults is to be recognized, according to Becatti, in two inscriptions, one found in the Mithraeum and the other in the Serapeum; the first is the dedication of a labrum by Marcus Umbilius Criton (identified with the sculptor of the group of Mithras found in the Mithraeum of the Terme del Mitra, who would have had Roman citizenship through the intercession of Senator M. Umbilius Maximus), the second is the dedication of a statue of the son of the same M. Umbilius Maximus.
[12] In Ostia an ancient temple of Hercules was found (Reg. I, Ins. XV, 5) in a sacred area along Via della Foce (Scavi di Ostia, I, p. 106), not far therefore from the Serapeum. On the oracular cult of Hercules in Ostia cf. G. Becatti in BCom, LXVII, 1939, pp. 37-60; and BCom, LXX, 1942, pp. 115-125.
[13] The Dioscures, probably due to their connection with navigation, had an ancient cult in Ostia (Ross Taylor, Cults, pp. 22-26; Paschetto, pp. 149-150; Meiggs, Ostia, pp. 343-346; H. Bloch in NSc, 1953, p. 246, no 10; G. Barbieri in Athenaeum, XXXI, 1953 p. 166 ff.) where on January 27 of each year the praetor urbanus celebrated games for the health of the Roman people.
[14] The Serapeum of Portus is documented without doubt by a series of inscriptions in Greek (IG, XIV, 914-921) mostly from the early third century (914 is placed for the health of Severus Alexander and Iulia Mamaea, 917 for Septimius Severus, Caracalla and Iulia Domna). In general, the dedicators are linked to Alexandria (one (916) is a Senator of Alexandria) or to the Alexandrian fleet (C. Valerius Serenus (917) was επιμελητης παντος του Αλεξανδρεινου στολου [curator of the entire Alexandrian fleet]) that supplied Rome with grain and that, after the construction of the ports of Claudius and Trajan, sailed directly to Ostia and no longer to Pozzuoli. The rite here, as demonstrated by Dessau (Bull. Ist., 1882, p. 152 ff.) must have been modeled on the Alexandrian one. The inscriptions give us some names of priests and attendants of the Temple (cf. also Meiggs, Ostia, pp. 387-388; Ross Taylor, Cults, pp. 72-74).
[15] Min. Fel., Octavius, II, 4: Caecilius, while walking with his friend along the seashore, seeing a statue of Serapis ritually kisses his hand in an act of homage.
[16] Scavi di Ostia, I, p. 138; AA, LII, 1937, p. 385; Meiggs, Ostia, p. 368.
[17] Inv. 1210. The statue, already known by Paschetto (p. 370), has recently been reassembled by Raissa Calza, who identified the head.
[18] Inv. 76, small marble bust of Serapis from Piazzale della Vittoria; inv. 201, small marble bust of Serapis; 202, small marble bust also from Piazzale della Vittoria; 203, statuette without head of the enthroned god; 204, small marble head from the Decumanus; 205, small marble head from the vicinity of Porta Laurentina; 206, small head from Via dei Vigili; 210, torso of a statuette. I owe the notes of the places of discovery to Mrs. Raissa Calza who, with her usual kindness, allowed me to take advantage of her long research and cataloging of Ostian sculptures. The sculptures are from the second and third centuries. and they are generally inspired by the Bryaxis type and some free reworking.
[19] R. Calza, Museo Ostiense, 1947, p. 17 (Inv. 1125).
[20] lnv. 208; S. Donadoni, Una statuetta egiziana da Ostia in Studi in onore di I. Rosellini, II, Pisa 1955, pp. 50-71.
[21] One (Inv. 211) is of marble, the other is of precious alabaster and had arms and head (now lost) inserted and probably of white marble, according to a very common technique, especially in small images of oriental or Egyptian divinities.
[22] Inv. 3549; Cf. NSc, 1915, p. 252, no 8, fig. 13 a.
[23] Inv. 3550; Cf. NSc, 1908, p. 248.
[24] Cf. Paschetto, pp. 165-167; Ross Taylor, Cults, pp. 67-72; Meiggs, Ostia, pp. 368-370.
[25] Giornale di Roma, 18 marzo 1862 (cf. Paschetto, pp. 401-402).
[26] CIL, XIV, 4291. The inscription is unfortunately mutilated: Duo v(ir) .... Isi et S(erapi) ... (ta)bernas ....
[27] CIL, XIV, 21; it seems that the base was found not far from the Capitolium. It is interesting that the dedicant belongs to the same family as the builder of the Serapeum, which demonstrates a particular concern of this gens for the Egyptian cults.
[28] De Ruggiero (Diz. Ep., s.v. Bubastis), relating to Ostia an inscription published among those of Rome (CIL, VI, 2249) in which a sacerdos Bubastium is commemorated, thinks that in Ostia there was an independent chapel of the goddess, but for now it seems more probable that she was associated with Isis in her Iseum.
[29] CIL, XIV, 123 = Thylander, B 308 - from Portus - with dedication Numini Isidi and to the Magna Mater Deum Idaea, by the cultores of Serapis. We already saw a priest of Isis and of the Magna Mater.
[30] Lanciani in Bull. Inst., 1868, p. 228 ff.
[31] CIL, XI, 123 = Thylander, B 308.
[32] It is known that in Rome there were two great Isea, the oldest one in the third region, which was called Isis et Serapis after it, and the one in the Campus Martius, which, voted in 43 BC, was rebuilt by Caligula, restored by Domitian, and then by Alexander Severus. The cult must have been introduced already in the age of Sulla and was sometimes temporarily opposed due to the orgiastic character that could lend itself to undermine morality.
[33] Scavi di Ostia, vol. III, Maria Floriani Squarciapino, Le necropoli, parte I, p. 86, pl. XIII, 3.
[34] CIL, XIV, 1044; Benndorf Schöne, Kat. Lateran. Mus., p. 386; Maria Floriani Squarciapino, Piccolo corpus dei mattoni scolpiti ostiensi in BCom., LXXVI, 1956-58, p. 199 ff.
[35] Menologia Rustica and Fasti Philocali; cf. CIL, I,2, 311; Lydus, de Mens., IV, 32.
[36] Inv. 3218; NSc, 1909, p. 118, no 7 fig. 2; AA, 1910, col. 180.
[37] Met., xi, 9. The flutists consecrated to the great Serapis also participate in the procession, "playing intermittently the traditional motif that echoes in the temple of their god".
[38] Met., xi, 11: the image of Anubis with caduceus and palm as messenger of the gods and psychopompus seems to open the procession of divine images carried by the priests.
[39] 4) B. Nogara, Le nozze Alodobrandine; i paesaggi con scene dell’Odissea e altre pitture conservate nella Biblioteca Vaticana e Musei pontifici, Milano 1907, pp. 76-77, pl. XLIX; cf. also Ross Taylor, Cults, p. 71, note 19. The painting comes from a tomb or a house on the Via Laurentina and was found with others, which also feature children in the act of performing religious ceremonies. It could be a kind of religious calendar referring to the best known holidays.
[40] Cf. Paschetto, p. 213 and pp. 470-472; G. Calza, NSc, 1938, p. 70; Nogara, op. cit., p. 67 ff., pl. XLVI; Scavi di Ostia, vol. III, p. 126; Meiggs, Ostia, p. 294, fig. 25 e.
[41] A ship of the Alexandrian fleet, which transported grain to Rome, is remembered by Lucianus with this name; while ships of the Roman fleet also had the auspicious name (cf. De Ruggiero, Diz. Ep., s.v. classis).
[42] Visconti, Catalogo del Museo Torlonia, no 20; Meiggs, Ostia, pl. XXXI, d. A statue of Bes, the benevolent dwarf-demon, protector of births (Inv. 225) was found in Ostia along the Cardo Maximus; and a Bes-shaped vase neck is kept in the Antiquarium Ostiense (Inv. 3286).
[43] Visconti, Catalogo del Museo Torlonia, no 13; Meiggs, Ostia, p. 387, with reference precisely to the Serapeum of Portus.
[44] Paschetto, p. 165 (cf. Atti Pont. Acc. Arch., XV, p. CXXXIV) e p. 401 f. The statue of a pastophoros is of particular interest since it would be the only document, known for now, of the existence in Ostia of this sacred college intimately linked to the cult of Isis.
[45] Benndorf Schöne, op. cit., no 546; Paschetto, pp. 402-403. In this place, Paschetto gives a list of objects from the same locality, including, in addition to the already mentioned inscriptions CIL, XIV, 20, 21, a "draped female statue of Egyptian style", and the head of an "African person". Other Egyptian-type sculptures are found in Ostia, some originals such as the statuette of Osiris (Inv. 3580), others imitations, such as the scarab (Inv. 3578) and the headless green basalt statuette (Inv. 207) bearing hieroglyphs without meaning. We do not know if these objects can all refer to Egyptian cults or if they are not souvenirs brought by travelers, or objects of collection. The taste for Egyptian-style decorations and objects is in fact clearly manifested also in the wall painting of the last years of the republic: it was a fashion mainly due to the intensified contacts of those years with Egypt, and therefore some of the discoveries mentioned may also not have any direct relationship with the cult of Isis and Serapis.
[46] We have already mentioned the two statuettes from the vicinity of the Serapeum, to which are added: Inv. 216, statuette found in the Horrea di Hortensius; Inv. 228, headless small bust found in the Tempio di Bellona, interesting for the possible relations with this divinity; Inv. 545, head of Isis or of a girl in the cult from the chapel in the Casa degli Aurighi.
[47] Inv. 3232-3234, small terracotta heads of the goddesss; Inv. 4622, small terracotta bust.
[48] Inv. 2204, stamp B (CIL, XV, 6334 a) with the busts of Isis and Serapis facing each other; Inv. 2478, stamp C IVN DRAC (CIL, XV, 2478) with the symbol from the cult of Isis of the moon on the solar disc, like 2831; Inv. 3180-3182, bust of Isis on the handle; Inv. 3191-3192 have a handle surmounted by a crescent moon on which is a bust probably of Isis (perhaps the oil lamps 3193, 3195, 3196 may also belong to this type). The ornament of the lamp handle Inv. 3197 with a sphinx on a crescent also takes us to the Egyptian environment and the Egyptian cults; 2778 with the bull Apis, 2932 with Anubis.
[49] The sculpture is still headless in the guide of the Museo Ostiense of 1957 (p. 31, no 154).
[50] Inv. 150. G. Becatti in Critica d' Arte, 1938, p. 49 ff.; R. Calza, Museo Ostiense, p. 30, no 150.
[51] I refer to a perirranterion [holy water font] or support of a statue (Inv. 494) that has a central support and four corner columns: in the aediculae formed by these are represented Harpocrates, Anubis and two sacred bulls, one of which with the solar disc between the horns and an ureus at the feet.
[52] I would also like to mention a beautiful terracotta statue (Inv. 3585), life-sized, of a seated goddess, with traces of gilding on her face, found in 1938 in a private chapel of a house on the Cortile del Dioniso. The presence in the chiton, between the two breasts, of a tightening of the fabric, reminiscent of the Isis knot, has led to the idea of a statue of Isis. I believe instead that it is a Fortuna (cf. M. Floriani Squarciapino, Una statua fittile ostiense in Arti Figurative, 3, 1947, pp. 1-11). The loss of all attributes does not allow us to specify better. On the other hand, the frequent pairing of Isis and Fortuna could lead us to think that with this meaning the goddess was also venerated in the private chapel, which in this case would correspond to that of Serapis we have spoken about. Mrs. Raissa Calza also relates to the cult of Isis a female statuette seated on an overturned basket, or on a roll of rope (Inv. 969), found in Via della Foce: it would be a representation of Isis Agraria, identified by Perdrizet with Bubastis, or perhaps of a port deity. It bears the dedication of a Bebia Tallusa and of a Teodoto Hilarioni patri, which, if pater is not to be understood in the sense of "father" of the two dedicators, would suggest links with the cult of Mithras. To the cult of Serapis may also be related, as Mrs. Calza pointed out to me, a remnant of sculpture, probably with a kneeling person, with the inscription: QUI SOLI SPI .... (Inv. 222), also found in Via della Foce and therefore in the vicinity of the Serapeum, as well as a series of full relief votive feet joined two by two, of various origins (Inv. 1021). Perhaps from a temple of the Egyptian divinities come two antefixes of marble of different sizes adorned with urei, surmounted by the solar disc, which frame a lotus flower, between two feathers, also surmounted by the solar disc. The larger of the two (Inv. 1365), found in one of the southern rooms of the Piccolo Mercato (NSc, 1912, p. 133), is identical to two antefixes now preserved in the Museo Gregoriano Egizio, so that Romanelli put forward also for these the hypothesis of an Ostian origin (G. Botti - P. Romanelli, Le sculture del Museo Gregoriano Egizio, Città del Vaticano, 1951, no 208-209, Pl. LXXXVI).